Cost of Checkpointing vs Persistence.

Updated May 5, 2026

Short answer

Persistence is faster but fragile; Checkpointing is slower but reliable.

Deep explanation

Persistence (cache()) keeps the RDD lineage and is managed by the Spark BlockManager. Checkpointing destroys the lineage and requires writing to HDFS/S3, which involves a new Spark job.

Unlock with a Pro subscription to view this section.

View pricing

Real-world example

No real-world example available yet.

Unlock with a Pro subscription to view this section.

Upgrade to Pro

Common mistakes

No common mistakes listed yet.

Unlock with a Pro subscription to view this section.

Upgrade to Pro

Follow-up questions

No follow-up questions available yet.

Unlock with a Pro subscription to view this section.

Upgrade to Pro

More Apache Spark interview questions

View all →